This essay is
reproduced from the NRA website. Gun control successes in
the United States, should they eventuate, will impact
adversely on shooters everywhere. We believe that
those who think otherwise are misinformed. The United
Nations are also a repository of anti gun propaganda. In
recent years the major opposition to the UN's anti-gun
agenda has come from the United States. Very little
credible opposition has come from shooting organisations
elsewhere and that, unfortunately, includes Australian
shooting bodies.

Friday, January 16, 2009

No one, including the Brady Campaign, seriously believes
that Barack Obama was elected president because of his
support for gun control. But Brady is pretending that it
provided Obama the margin of victory in November, and has
provided him with a very long list of gun bans and other
restrictions that it expects from him in return.

If for no other reason, Obama might want to tell Brady "no,"
because if he were to do their bidding, they would be sure
to demand that he do even more. That's demonstrated by
Brady's statement that their current request "is not
intended to present an exhaustive list . . . but does
provide a starting point." It includes:

A California-style "assault weapons" ban. For several
years, Brady has referred to California's ban--which is far
more restrictive than the federal ban of 1994-2004--as the
"model" for the rest of the nation. Brady doesn't say so,
but it clearly supports--as does the Violence Policy
Center--the California--like ban that Rep. Carolyn McCarthy
(D-N.Y.) has proposed in Congress since before the 1994
semi-automatic firearm ban expired. Among its differences
from the 1994 ban, the McCarthy bill would ban rifles like
the AR-15, even if they do not have a flash suppressor,
bayonet mount, or adjustable-position stock. It would ban
the M1, the M1 Carbine, the Ruger Mini-14 series, the SKS,
and many other semi-automatic rifles not previously labeled
as "assault weapons." And it would ban every semi-automatic
shotgun, by banning its receiver. Brady wants .50 caliber
rifles banned as well.

A ban on standard magazines designed for self-defense.
Brady calls them "high-capacity," but magazines that hold
more than 10 rounds are designed for self-defense, as
demonstrated by the fact that most guns that use standard
defensive magazines (those holding more than 10 rounds) are
handguns designed for self-defense, and used for that
purpose by private citizens, law enforcement officers, and
military personnel alike.

Now's as good a time as any to dispel one blatant lie that
Brady includes with its wish list. Brady says, "Beginning
with the Brady Law in 1993, the assault weapon ban in 1994,
and other Clinton Administration policies, our nation
experienced an historic decline in gun crime and violence,"
adding, "during the Bush years, gun crime increased as the
Administration and Congress . . . allowed the assault
weapons ban to expire [and] gave the gun industry special
legal protection."

The truth is, violent crime began declining in 1991, three
years before the Brady Act and the semi-automatic firearm
ban, and more than a year before Bill Clinton took office.
And, the nation's violent crime rate has declined another
eight percent since President Bush took office.

Moreover, in 1998, the Brady Act's waiting period on gun
sales ceased, because it was replaced by the National
Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which the
Brady Campaign has always opposed (though they try to take
credit for it today, inappropriately referring to NICS
checks as "Brady checks.") And, contrary to Brady's
prediction that crime rates would soar if the semi-automatic
firearm ban expired, the ban expired in 2004, and since then
violent crime rates have been lower than anytime in the last
31 years.

Repeal the recent Department of the Interior rule
allowing state law to determine how firearms may be carried
in National Parks and wildlife refuges. Brady offers no
evidence to support its hunch that allowing permit-holders
to carry concealed firearms "would increase the risk of gun
crime, injury and death in the parks and wildlife refuges."
But as for Brady's hunches, for the last 20 years it has
predicted that allowing people to carry guns for protection
will cause murder rates to soar, but people now carry guns
for protection in 40 states and since 1999, murder rates
have been lower than anytime since the mid-1960s.

Repeal the Tiahrt Amendment and the Protection of Lawful
Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). Brady complains that the
Tiahrt Amendment "restricts disclosure of the data to law
enforcement," and prevents the BATFE from disclosing
firearm-tracing data to the public. The first claim is a
lie. The amendment allows BATFE to provide the data to any
law enforcement agency involved in a bona fide investigation
related to a traced firearm.

Tracing data is not released to the public so that, among
other reasons, criminals won't know that the police are
investigating them. Brady should just tell the truth, for
once: even though the BATFE and Congressional Research
Service repeatedly state that tracing data are not reliable
enough to draw conclusions about the criminal use of guns
generally, Brady wants the data so it can concoct bogus
claims to use in lawsuits against firearm manufacturers who
comply with every applicable firearm law. These lawsuits are
currently prohibited by the PLCAA, which Brady hopes to
overturn.

Require all firearm sales to go through NICS (advocated
by Mr. Obama's choice for Attorney General, Eric Holder),
and allow the FBI to retain the records of all NICS-approved
firearm transfers. It used to be that Brady claimed that the
only private transfers that it wanted run through NICS were
those taking place at gun shows. Now, it's all private
transfers, including gifts between family members and sales
or trades between friends. And, it wants the FBI to record
all transfers. Translation: Gun and gun owner registration,
no two ways about it.

Allow a NICS check to reject someone whose name is on an
FBI watch list. This is yet another idea recommended by
prospective Attorney General Holder and Obama adviser Rahm
Emanuel. The obvious problem with it is that you can get on
one of these lists by having the same name as a suspected
criminal or terrorist, and if you are on a list, you may not
be able to determine which one you are on, much less get
yourself removed. Sen. Ted Kennedy even ended up on a "no
fly" list, for reasons that have not been made public.

Prohibit the sale of more than one handgun to a single
individual in a 30-day period, in order to thwart
"large-volume" illegal gun traffickers. Federal law already
requires a dealer to report to law enforcement authorities
whenever a person buys more than one handgun in a five-day
period. This proposal amounts to the rationing of a
constitutional right with no crime-reduction benefit.

Require all new guns to micro-stamp ammunition with
serial numbers linking the owner in a federal gun-owner
registration database. Most crimes are solved by other
means, not by ammunition markings, and criminals could
easily deface the firearm parts that would bear the serial
numbers. Brady's agenda isn't about solving crimes; for them
micro-stamping is another way of achieving gun and gun owner
registration.

Require consumer safety standards for firearms. Even
the vehemently anti-gun Violence Policy Center has said this
would lead to standards too difficult for firearm
manufacturers to achieve, thus ending firearm production.

We close with yet another Brady lie,
"These proposals are clearly constitutional under the U.S.
Supreme Court's recent Second Amendment decision in District
of Columbia v. Heller and they pose no threat to the
interests of law-abiding gun owners." Heller clearly said
that laws cannot deprive people of the Right to Keep and
Bear Arms for defensive purposes. As for "the interests of
gun owners," we'll follow the Supreme Court's example, and
let gun owners speak for themselves. The Court declared
D.C.'s handgun ban unconstitutional because gun owners
consider handguns to be the type of firearm best suited for
self-defense.

Copyright 2009, National Rifle
Association of America, Institute for Legislative
Action.
This may be reproduced. It may not be reproduced for
commercial purposes.